Outside the Haixi County Magistrate's Office, there are short and thick stone cannons.
These stone cannons were distributed by Haixi County to the two Pan-Mongolian tribes under its jurisdiction. They look like stone benches in the garden. The surface is uneven and there is a three-inch wide barrel inside. The diameter is very short, but the inside is relatively smooth. .
The leaders of the two tribes and their entourage stood in the open space in front of the government office, each occupying one side. You stared at me and I stared at you, wishing you could draw your bow and draw your sword to fight in front of the magistrate.
These stone cannons are simple to make, requiring only basic stone tool making skills and are very cheap.
It is also very simple to use. Load two kilograms of gunpowder and gravel and iron slag, use asphalt yellow wax to paste the fire door, place it randomly on the pile of rocks outside the pier fortress, and connect a lead to the fortress. The soldiers guarding the fort saw the enemy coming. Just light it.
In essence, it is not a cannon, but a fuse-fired bomb.
Of course, sometimes because the quality of the stone is good, it will just spray out the particles like a cannon after being ignited. The barrel of the cannon is not damaged, so you can only pick it up and reload it, hoping that it will break down again next time. .
Liu Guoneng took over this county, and its composition was very simple, consisting of three tribes.
His own tribe includes a Han tribe, a Fan tribe in Haixi, and a Mongolian tribe in Hainan. The three tribes have a population of 4,662 and a half, making up the registered people of the entire Haixi County.
The county is extremely poor, and the people make a living by raising animals. On average, one household has three sheep, three households have one cow, and each household has one horse, donkey, and mule.
Everything should not be judged by the average. If the average number seems to be adequate, then the vast majority of people must be able to make do with it.
Liu Guoneng's tribesmen followed here and cultivated 1,400 acres of land, almost reaching the limit of the land that Haixi County can currently cultivate.
There are still about 90,000 acres of land suitable for farming in the local area, mainly concentrated among the Mongolian tribes in Hainan. However, that area is now pasture land. Liu Guoneng cannot do the work of reclaiming the fields for the Tongmeng tribesmen. He can only put it on hold until the end of the war and let the general Wailiangzi go try it.
After all, Wailiangzi is a member of that tribe.
Liu Guoneng put his hands behind his back and used a caliper to inspect the thickness of each stone cannon. He used a caliper to check the thickness of each stone cannon. He used a pen to write four big characters on the side of the stone cannon: "The hole faces the enemy."
"One hundred and twenty people from Haixi Township entered Weiyuan stone cannons, and 32 of them were not in compliance with the regulations, so the total number was 88; Hainan Township was 133 people who were admitted to Weiyuan stone cannons, and 42 people were not in compliance with the regulations, and the total number was 88. Ninety-one...taken to Nanshan Fort."
As for the seventy-four extra stone cannons that were not in compliance with the regulations, Liu Guoneng knew that these things could actually be used, but he still ordered the yamen servants to smash them all with hammers in front of the two men.
The Qinghai Marshal's Mansion has not yet unified tax laws. Some places collect Timba like the Mongols. Some places, such as Haixi County, have not yet started collecting taxes. They are basically tributes.
Changes in people's identities are the easiest to cause thinking. In the past, Liu Guoneng was a country scholar, and his thinking about the decline of the imperial court was that he collected too many taxes; now Liu Guoneng is an official in the Marshal's Office, and his thinking about the decline of the imperial court is that he collected too few taxes.
Too much taxation is the total amount including apportionment, while too little taxation is the court's land tax. In fact, they are both the same thing. The lessons and thoughts Liu Guo can get from it are only about the good and evil appearance when the country was founded.
In the past six months, Xining Prefecture has been discussing tax issues, mainly animal husbandry tax, sitting tax, and customs duties.
The reason why there is no land tax is because the marshal's government has a strong bias on tax issues.
They were a group of rebels who had suffered a lot, and land annexation was just one of them. Drought and expropriation were the most serious problems, and land annexation was not that important.
But they can succeed and have indeed benefited from land annexation, so they are naturally more willing to ask for taxes from large households, and they also naturally know to curb land annexation.
Any soldier knows that as long as the farmers do not go bankrupt, the majority of farmers will not rebel. Therefore, it is necessary to limit the number of acres of land per capita to no tax or less tax.
Under this premise, the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion had only a few acres of land and could not collect land tax at all.
Instead, they transitioned to the government. Once they start the Eastern Expedition, they will formalize the Gulf market, and taxation and customs duties will be put on the agenda.
But ever since Liu Guoneng learned that his county had 90,000 acres of farmland to be cultivated, he only focused on filing land taxes.
The Ming Dynasty's land tax of one out of thirty was good governance, but whenever something happened to the court, the money and food would not be enough. If it was not enough, it would have to be apportioned, and if it was apportioned, it would be scolded and it would lose the support of the people.
Moreover, as the imperial court became rigid, the number of officials increased, and wars continued year after year, various apportionments increased. Nearly half of the harvest was taken away from the common people. So what do these thirty taxes count? It's better to just learn from Cao Wei, five public servants and five common people, and only get scolded once.
Liu Guoneng wrote to the prefect's Yamen three times, suggesting that the land tax be set higher. The first time he suggested a tax of one out of ten. After inspection, he found that the Fanbu on the border of Xining and Huangnan had to pay tiba twice, so he wrote a second time. , it is recommended to pay five taxes and one tax.
After the war started, he was very happy when he heard that Xiao Lazun had escaped. He directly wrote a letter suggesting that the Marshal's Mansion implement a land tax of three taxes and one or two taxes and one.
Liu Guoneng believed that Xiao Lazun was a stumbling block to the tax rate of the Marshal's Mansion, because in Huangnan Lazun, the tax rate was one for ten.
Lazun only accepts Timba and has no responsibilities except restraining his troops from looting the local area; while the Marshal's Office is responsible for a series of social responsibilities such as building bridges and roads, cultivating fields, and recruiting soldiers.
But the people who pay tiba and taxes don't care about this. People only know how much tax you collected.
Therefore, if Lazun doesn’t leave, Liu Guoneng will not be able to tell his true thoughts. His logic is this: if the place is clean and there are no messy assessments, the farmers can bear the regular tax of two taxes and one. They are in a war era, that is in this way.
Moreover, with the newly-established atmosphere of the Marshal's Mansion, the clearing of land and the establishment of households and people are real figures. By laying down a piece of land and uprooting the old ruler, they can have unprecedented dominance over a piece of land.
The taxes collected will only decrease, not increase, in the next one or two hundred years. What's more, Liu Chengzong will have a son in the future. Regardless of whether he is the King of Qinghai or the Lord of the World, he will be able to gain a few points of reduction in the regular tax after he succeeds to the throne. People's hearts.
There is no harm in setting a high point at the beginning, but setting a low point is to plant bombs for the future.
However, neither Liu Guoneng nor Liu Xiangyu had the right to decide on the tax discussion. They were just making preparations in advance for the final decision in the future.
None of them knew what was going on in the south of the Marshal's Mansion, only Liu Chengzong knew.
But Liu Guoneng's idea of being strict first and then lenient in taxation has been implemented in Haixi. Even if he only imports some stone cannons for two departments, he must be very strict. Whatever the rules are, what he hands over must be the same. .
"Liu's parents, please don't smash it." The Mongolian leader stepped forward to stop him: "This is famous. If you smash it, you won't know who did it."
This leader from the Mongolian tribe in Hainan is the father-in-law of Wailiangzi, named Old Man Liang.
Old Man Liang could speak Chinese, so he was responsible for all contacts with the Marshal's Mansion. As he worked hard, he became the officially certified leader.
His surname comes from Liu Chengzong's commendation letter, which was sent to Wailiangzi's mother-in-law, praising Wailiangzi as a hero and mainstay of the Marshal's Mansion, saying that Wailiangzi was Batu'er personally named by the Grand Marshal, and a warrior.
So their family, including the two teenage boys, now all have the title of Batuer. What is the corresponding Chinese character for Batuer? The old Mongolian man thought for a while, and the mainstay, well... it should be Liang.
Therefore, when registering their household registration in Haixi County, their family name was Liang.
Liu Guoneng heard what Old Man Liang said and waved his hand: "This is the first time. I smashed it directly. Don't think about going back to punish others. Next time, just let people build it according to the regulations."
The two leaders nodded in agreement, and then the stone cannon was loaded and transported to Nanshan Fort by the government officials to prevent attacks from the Mongolian tribes in Chaka Yanchi.
After finishing this matter, Liu Guoneng called the two leaders into the yamen and asked: "How is the vaccination of your subordinates?"
A pox doctor is a doctor who specializes in vaccinating people with pox, with the main purpose of preventing smallpox.
People discovered that people who had suffered from smallpox would not get it a second time, so they developed variolation. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, a doctor from Ningguofu created a relatively mature attenuated vaccination technology.
Even now, most of the doctors who travel around the world to vaccinate the people are from Ningguo Prefecture.
Three hundred years later this was a very backward ancient medical skill, but in the Ming Dynasty it was the most advanced science in the world.
Technology is yesterday's science, and science is tomorrow's technology.
The Marshal's Mansion didn't notice this at first, but last year a tribe in Huangnan was completely free of smallpox, so Liu Chengzu noticed it.
The reason why that tribe disappeared was not entirely due to smallpox. Catching smallpox would kill four out of five people... Strictly speaking, smallpox was not that serious, but in this era, fever and diarrhea can kill people, and no one can tell who is suffering from pox. Why did he die?
Moreover, there is an incubation period of up to twenty days. People have no way to prevent this disease. Once it occurs, it will burn like wildfire everywhere.
So when Lazun heard that someone had acne, he directly sent troops to implement the highest level of isolation - separation of yin and yang.
Although the incident did not happen to him, Liu Chengzu was still afraid. He found two vaccination doctors from Ningguo Prefecture from Xining to vaccinate the entire army. They might be going to fight somewhere. If they were infected, the entire army would be gone. If you lose your fighting power, this situation means death during a war.
In this era, vaccinations were generally given to children one or two years old, and the mortality rate was considered successful if it was less than 5%. Doctors with better skills in cultivating vaccines could control the death rate to one in 400.
One of the two vaccination doctors was killed by Liu Chengzu. The man claimed that he had excellent vaccines and technology and could kill one of five hundred people. However, he vaccinated 120 soldiers of the Zhenhai Battalion with vaccination, and thirteen died, which almost caused the disease. mutiny.
The other doctor had better skills, but basically one in a hundred died. He was awarded an official position by the Marshal's Office and built a pox village at the foot of the Qilian Mountains in Haibei. At first, there were relatively few vaccinia vaccines, and he only vaccinate the army. This year, he also vaccinates the common people.
However, the people in Haixi and Haibei counties lack enthusiasm for vaccination. People can accept the separation of yin and yang after acne, but they cannot accept the one percent fatality rate.
After all, one is accepted by God, and the other is driven to death by himself. The psychological difference is huge.
Old Man Liang shook his head and said: "It's less than half, there will be another war now, and no one in the tribe is willing to run to Pox Village."
"Let's wait until the war is over. After the war, we must all plant crops. The commander-in-chief will be back by then." Liu Guoneng said: "I heard that General Zhong said that the enemy troops in the Heka Grassland were mobilized abnormally. Maybe the commander-in-chief has come from the south. coming."
Old Man Liang nodded heavily: "Don't worry, parents Liu. After the battle, I will take my troops to Pox Village... I have something else to do when I come back. When is the date for Liu's parents' official robes to be arranged?"
Liu Guoneng was stunned for a moment by the question, then sighed and said, "Let me do the math."
The Marshal's Mansion does not have a systematic uniform system. The prefects Liu Xiangyu and Yang Dingrui still don't have official robes, so it's okay for them not to use them.
But the county magistrate must have official uniforms, because when the couple gets married and registers at the county government office, they have to borrow official robes and phoenix crowns and harems to wear as the official wedding attire of the matchmaker.
When getting married, it is much easier for men to wear whatever the county magistrate wears. For women, it is a little more troublesome. The county government must prepare phoenix crowns, phoenix hairpins, gold hairpins, Xia pei, pei pendants, and fishing rings.
Because of this, the magistrate's official robe of the Marshal's Mansion is mainly used for common people to wear when they get married. The common people only wear it once when they get married. It may be the best robe that many people have ever worn in their lives.
Liu Xiangyu served as Mi Zhi's acting parent official. He knew that this custom was very important and very helpful to the people's hearts, so he specially asked the Weaving Bureau to use the best fabrics and the best craftsmanship to make the county magistrate with dark dark patterns. Official robes and phoenix crowns.
Liu Guoneng liked that official robe very much. The fabric and color made it look like an official of the fourth rank or higher... but he had never worn it even a day.
He made some calculations in his mind and said to Old Man Liang: "October, the last person to get married is on the sixth day of October. I forgot the names of the Nanshan Fort soldiers. General Zhong told me, you have to use the beginning of October." Seven.”
Old Man Liang calculated with his rough fingers, his face turned bitter: "Then we have to wait another three months?"
Liu Guoneng nodded, and then waved his hands angrily: "Just wait, I've been waiting for half a year, and I haven't worn it once. I've almost worn it out for these married people. Which general is it this time?" Is there any happy event for my subordinates?"
Old Man Liang was stunned for a moment, lowered his head and paused before saying: "This time he is not under the general's command, but a junior of our own. This... Liu's parents, can't our juniors borrow official uniforms when they get married?"
"Huh? What do you mean you can't borrow it?"
Liu Guoneng's eyes widened when he heard this: "I'm telling you, the rules are the rules. When you get married, you have to wear official uniforms, you must wear them!"
"You go back and tell the couple that the wedding will be scheduled on the seventh day of October for the time being. There are many sergeants getting married in the front. If there is a war and the date cannot get married, I will bring him to the front. Anyway, it is ready. The date will be three days earlier. There is a notification from the Yamen."
Old man Liang was very happy when he heard this and laughed. The married young man in the tribe gave him a break for several days in order to ask him about this matter. He was afraid that Liu Guo would not allow this trip and it would be a disgrace to his mission. Now he was heartbroken when he heard this. Landing, it was so easy.
At this moment, some tired horse soldiers came from outside the yamen and reported into the hall: "Liu Magistrate, urgent report from Nanshan, the general has nine battles and nine victories in Nanshan, Heka, and has defeated the captive army. Now the vanguard has arrived at the Heka grassland. !”
